In the spring of 1981 Big Charlie Thornton came up with the idea, according to Lynn Stone, who remembers the night a group of local sailors and friends sat around her place at Grayton Beach, discussing the possibility of organizing a local Hobie Cat regatta. 

Charlie and Lynn had been sailing in Ft Walton Beach regattas, and he wanted to create a just-for-fun race as part of the local Fourth of July celebration. As the night wore on, enthusiasm for the event grew.

Lynn, a seasoned Hobie sailor herself, helped Charlie with the organization of the race and news soon spread throughout the sailing community. A twenty-dollar entry fee would guarantee you a place, T-shirt, and beer at the end of the race. The group unanimously agreed on Sunday, the fifth of July as the date.

Charlie remembers it well. "We talked about the name for the race to print on the T-shirts and someone came up with Rags to Riches. Grayton sailors latched on to the name 'Rags' since all of them were poor. Those of us down at Seagrove would lay claim to the 'Riches' - therein lies the joke." 

Excerpt from Rags to Riches Regatta by Carol McCrite, Of Days Gone By:  Reflections of South Walton County, Florida

Under partly cloudy skies and a prevailing stiff south wind, the First Annual Grayton to Seagrove Regatta launched at 12:30 pm according to the log book kept by Alice Thornton.  Twelve multi-colored sails bobbed in the choppy waters that tested the most skilled handler.

"There were thirteen entries," Alice says as she flips through the log's now-yellowed pages.  Bibba and Art Jones were listed as number thirteen.  "We chickened out because of the rough seas," they were later quoted in the Harold-Breeze, July 16th, 1981, issue.  When you look back on the event, maybe sailing in the thirteenth slot would not have been such a good idea. 

Most of the sailors were novices.  After all, it was supposed to be a fun race, not to be taken seriously.  Of course, this in no way eliminated the fierce competition between even the best of friends. 

As the weather worsened and the skies darkened, the crowd, watching the race from the shore, began to worry.  Some of the boats were struggling against the waves.  Most of the Hobie enthusiasts had never sailed in an open sea, and some were having difficulty handling their crafts in the rough waters. 

The course had been laid out from Grayton to Eastern Lake, then back to the area in front of the Thornton cottage in Seagrove.  As one boat after another was spotted through the many pairs of binoculars, the crowd on the beach held their breath.  Lynn Stone and Dave Snively were in the lead with Big Charlie and his son, Charlie Jr., breathing down their necks. 

"At one point we had passed Lynn and Dave," Charlie recalls, "but they pulled away during the final stretch of the race."  The large crowd that had gathered to cheer their favorite boat to victory breathed a sigh of relief as Hobie after Hobie slid across the sand. 

One team did not return with the others, however.  Their boat was downed in the rough seas, and exhaustion from repeated efforts to get it back upright was taking it's toll.  Several volunteers pushed their boats back through the surf and headed out to help Richard Brantley and Arnold Caylor.  From the shoreline, the boat - never mind the two young men - looked like a cork bobbing up and down.  At times huge swells hid the turtled sailboat from view. 

"When we finally saw the mast come up, we breathed a sigh of relief," Alice recalls.

Against the backdrop of multi-colored sails, Congressman Bill Dickerson of Alabama (a guest of the Lewis family of Grayton) presented the first-place trophy to Lynn and Dave.  With great fanfare a bottle of champagne was awarded to the winners, only after a thorough dousing over their heads.  Cheering and clapping continued as the two Charlies grabbed the second-place trophy, and sisters Molly and Laura Selby proudly accepted the third-place award.  Robert Pender and Gail Woodham were handed a fourth-place trophy.  Hamp Pridgen and Bill Davis rounded out the awards with a solid fifth.

Despite the difficulty of downed boats and rough seas, everone had so much fun the sailors vowed this regatta would become an annual affair.  Thirteen consecutive races proved to be the highlight of beach Fourth activities.